Artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. has honored the late rapper with a mural in Etna, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Zermeño, who previously painted his second Mac Miller mural for his birthday in 2019, waited a number of years before he was permitted to paint an even bigger mural at I.D. Labs, the studio where he recorded a large amount of his music. As the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported, the project represents Zermeño’s second ever mural painted outside of his home state of California.
“This is his old stomping grounds. This is connected to the people that knew him best, and I wanted to make sure what I created really represented not Mac Miller but Malcolm,” he said. “Something he would love himself. Who is better to gauge that than people who knew him personally?” The mural features Miller sporting his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers merch, and art that represents various different stages of his brief, but prolific career.
He said that it took him and his friend Nick Flax just under two weeks to put together, painting from 8 a.m. in the morning to 3 p.m. every day. “This piece itself, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do another piece that matches the energy this piece created,” he said. Upon completion of the mural, he also shared an extensive behind-the-scenes video showing the elaborate process that went into painting the massive mural, which covers the entire side of the iconic studio.
Check out more photos from the mural below and stream his 2011 mixtape here.
